


Swipe Left

by helsinkibaby



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Het, Romance, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 21:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13819617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Luke and Penelope learn about the perils of social media.





	Swipe Left

**Author's Note:**

> For February bingo prompt "high school"

“What are you doing here?” 

Luke looks around at the sound of Garcia’s voice, finding the prospect of her smile far more enticing than the school’s trophy cabinet. Which probably wasn’t a thought he should be thinking on the job, particularly as the phys ed teacher, but they’d been seeing each other for six months now and things were starting to get serious and he was pretty good at hiding things, so. 

“Meeting with Emily,” he told her, inclining his head towards the closed door, biting back a joke about being called to the principal’s office. If the way her eyes widened was any indication, she wouldn’t have found it funny. It took the penny a scandalously long time to drop, but when it did, his jaw dropped right along with it. “Wait, you too?” 

Garcia nodded her head several times in quick succession but that was the only outward indication of the panic he could see in her eyes. She took a careful step towards him, kept her voice low when she asked, “Do you think she knows?” 

It definitely seemed like it but Luke didn’t think that was what she needed to hear right now. Instead he tried to combat panic with logic. “How can she? We’ve been careful...” They weren’t at the living together stage yet - though he’d be lying if he said his thoughts hadn’t been moving in that direction - but they’d been careful about staying over in each other’s places, each of them driving their own cars to work on the mornings that they’d stayed over. Dates had been carefully picked so that they wouldn’t be seen and if they were, well, co-workers could enjoy a concert or a movie together, right? Even their social media was scrubbed clean of any reference to anything they did together, but that was part and parcel of being a high school teacher anyway. Besides, Luke wasn’t big on social media anyway and, as the computer studies teacher, Garcia’s were locked down as private as they could get. 

“You’re right.” But Garcia was still chewing her bottom lip, her nerves obvious and Luke found himself fighting the urge to reach out and pull it clear. That would definitely tip off anyone who happened to be watching them. “I’m sure you’re right.” She didn’t even sound like she believed it herself. 

“Look, even if she does know, what the worst that could happen?” Luke regretted asking the question when Garcia’s eyes flew wide and he was only saved from what he was sure was going to be a massive explosion from the arrival of Emily. 

“Ah good, you’re both here already; I got held up.” She swept past them into the principal’s office, leaving them no choice but to follow her. Being a gentleman, Luke held out his hand indicating that Garcia should go ahead of him and not being entirely stupid, he didn’t do what he usually did when Garcia walked ahead of him, keeping his eyes trained on the back of her head rather than her ass. “Sit down,” Emily said, dropping her iPad and folders on her desk, waving at the two seats across from her. 

Luke sat down with a sinking stomach. This definitely didn’t look good. “Is everything ok?” he asked, deciding it was better to just rip off the band aid. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Garcia shoot him a look but he didn’t turn his head, kept his focus on Emily and his face as innocent as possible. 

“Yes and no.” Emily sat down behind her desk and reached for her iPad. “There’s nothing wrong as such...” She swiped her iPad, began pressing the screen and Garcia leaned forwards, eyes squinting as she tried to see what she was doing. “But I needed to let you know... there has been talk about the two of you.” 

“Talk?” Luke asked the question, very aware that beside him, Garcia had gone perfectly still. “What kind of talk?” 

“The gossip kind.” Without further comment, Emily held up her ipad, screen facing them, and Luke frowned at the picture. It was one of himself and Garcia, taken in one of the corridors of the school, the two of them looking at one another with huge grins on their faces. Luke took the device from her, tilted it so that Garcia could see it too and, from closer up, he realised when it had been taken. They’d been talking to Spencer the previous morning - the very side of the English teacher’s profile was visible at the edge of the photograph - and he’d been busily describing in great detail the lesson he’d so painstakingly planned on British Romantic poets and how disastrously wrong it had gone. Luke and Garcia had been in stitches, both at the story and the way Spencer told it but he hadn’t been aware of anyone taking a photograph. 

Garcia, being the computer expert, got there before he did. “That was taken yesterday morning,” she said. “If a student took it, then they’re violating the cell phone policy...”

“Oh, I am aware.” Emily’s lips twisted. “And that will be addressed.” She paused. “As will the comments under the picture.” Luke blinked and she grimaced. “Swipe left.” 

With a sense of foreboding Luke did as he was told, frowning as he saw a screen shot of a page of instagram comments. Starting with “OMG they’re so cute” followed immediately by “Look at the way he’s looking at her!” they continued in a similar vein, in various degrees of bad grammar and extreme emoji use. A cursory scan seemed to indicate that there were several posters each of whom were convinced that he and Garcia were meant to be together and while he didn’t disagree with that assessment, it didn’t mean he wanted the entire world to know about it. 

He knew his own cheeks were warm but Garcia, with her paler colouring, was absolutely scarlet. Her mouth opened, then closed again and she seemed to be actually speechless. Any other time, Luke would be making a joke about that but he wasn’t finding it funny at the moment. 

“Obviously the students involved will be spoken to regarding inappropriate use of cell phone cameras, and reminded to be careful about what they post online.” Emily took the iPad back, a press of a button turning the screen black. “Particularly when it comes to the private lives of staff members.” 

The words were curiously weighted and Luke blinked in surprise. Sliding his eyes in Garcia’s direction, he saw her eyes narrowed in Emily’s direction. “Thank... you...?” The question was evident in the words and Emily’s lips actually twitched. 

“I’ll make sure that photo gets deleted and that no more like it go up,” she promised and Luke didn’t miss the flash of fire in Garcia’s eyes that promised she’d scrub every trace of it from the internet forever - he didn’t quite know all the details of her hacker past but he knew enough to know that she was more than capable of doing that. “I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you were going to do before I called you here.” 

Feeling like he’d dodged a bullet, Luke stood up and mumbled his thanks before holding the door open for Garcia and following her back to her computer lab. At this stage of the day, the place was deserted but he still knew better than to chance taking her in his arms, especially in light of what had just happened. 

“Ok.” Characteristically, Garcia was the first to speak. “So Emily knows. And doesn’t seem to mind?”

She sounded like she couldn’t quite believe it and Luke felt a smile spreading across his lips. “Looks like it.” Garcia’s face was still for a moment, then she smiled up at him. “That was a pretty great picture too.” 

Garcia’s smile widened. “I’ll make sure to save you a copy before I firebomb it from the internet.” 

“Just me?” He lifted an eyebrow and her cheeks flashed pink. 

“Well, I might save one for me too.” 

“Yeah?” He knew he was grinning widely, knew if any of the Instagram posters saw them now, they’d have a field day. 

“Yeah.” Her grin was just as wide. “Now I think you should get out of here and start making me dinner while I get on that.” 

Luke chuckled, resisting the urge to kiss her with everything he had. “Sweetheart,” he told her and the look on her face almost made him forget once more where they were, “you’ve got a deal.”


End file.
